Creating healthy smiles

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

Durham College and Health Mission Outreach (HMO) partnered up recently to provide low-income individuals around Durham with free dental work.

According to Judeline Innocent, the executive dean, and Astrid Strolpmann, a professor of the School of Health and Community Services at Durham College, they were set to see between 150 and 200 people.

Students were given the opportunity to work with real life professionals, with 18 volunteer dentists joining the cause. In total there were 80 volunteers from DC and HMO partaking in the clinic.

Strolpmann says that they were working with nurses and paramedics as well as HMO.

“[HMO] has been wonderful because they’ve done many of these,” says Strolpmann.

HMO is a medical outreach organization that consists of general volunteers, and licensed health care professionals, such as cardiologists, nurses, and dental workers.

“But even from a faculty perspective, just working with our interprofessional faculty, the dental program, people that have donated their time, volunteered, and all of the faculty and the students are just working together so well, it’s really quite fabulous,” says Strolpmann.

Hamid John, a HMO board director, says there was a team from RBC that donated their IT support for the registration process.

“As patients and clients are coming through, they’re working with all different professions, all different student practitioners, with their faculty support, and also working with practitioners as well,” says John. “So that adds to the learning, that adds to the organization, and it adds to the community by providing a service.”

John says that HMO chose Durham College because it is a good partnership. He also notes that Strolpmann and her students have been working with HMO for a long time.

“In the past we used to set up in a gymnasium, and different educational institutions would come in and partner with HMO,” explains John. “It was an onsite practicum for a good chunk of dental programs, and Durham College was one of them.”

The idea was then raised that they should do something in the east end of the GTA because HMO and its partners were doing most of their work in the west end.

Strolpmann says that HMO has now been working with Durham College for five years years.

According to Strolpmann, there are people from all around Durham Region, many of them being from Oshawa, but specifically they’re working with high need communities. Some of these include homeless communities, outreach communities, and others.

“The nice thing is they become aware of our dental clinic as well,” she notes. “So they’re establishing themselves in our dental clinic, and they’re actually coming back for dental hygiene care.”

According to Innocent, working in the dental clinic gives the students a chance to see what working in the real world will be like from an interprofessional relationship perspective.

“It really prepares them for that real world experience.”

Strolpmann says that they chose to work with HMO because it provides students with an opportunity to feel empowered and to have the feeling of doing something great for the community.

She also notes that HMO has been generous with the equipment they provide.

“We couldn’t do it on our own, because the equipment that goes into bringing this and the volunteer dentists, the costs are phenomenal.”

Despite the costs, Strolpmann says that the free clinic was very successful, and helped provide those in the community who needed it with free dental healthcare.